
'' .ETIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON 

University Extension Series No. 2 General Series No. 63 

University Extension Division 
Bureau of Civic Development 

LEAFLET No. 1 



The Social and Civic Center 

The Civic Center Idea 
City and Town Halls 
Armories and Convention Halls 
Public School Buildings 
The Neighborhood Civic Club 
Other Possibilities of the Center 
References 



SEATTLE 

Published by the University 

September 1912 



Entered as second class matter at Seattle, under the act of July 16. 1894 



University of Washington 
University Extension Division 

EDWIN A. START, Director 



The University Extension Division of the State University is or- 
ganized for the purpose of making the instruction and resources 
of the University more available and serviceable to the whole state 
— in a word, to bring the University to the people. 

ORGANIZATION 

As it is, or is to be, organized the University Extension Division 
will comprise the fields of: 

I. INSTRUCTION TO INDIVIDUALS, through correspondence 
courses and classes. 

II. COMMUNITY SERVICE, including 

a. Bureau of Debates and Discussion 

b. Bureau of Municipal and Legislative Reference. 

c. Bureau of General Information. 

d. Bureau of Lectures 

e. Bureau of Civic Development. 

III. PUBLICATION. 



PUBLICATIONS 

Preliminary Announcement, University Extension Series No. 1. An 
outline of the work and purposes of the division. Pp. 46. 

The Social and Civic Center, University Extension Series No. 2. 
Pp. 12. 

In Preparation: 

Department of Instruction, Revdse;^d Announcement. 
Bureau of Lectures, Revised Ar»'houncement. 

State Roads. A brief with references for the state high school 
debates. 

Others to be announced later. 



Any of these publications may be obtained on request to the 
DIliECTOR, University Extension Division, University of Wash- 
ington, Seattle. 



D. OF 0. 
MIL 24 1913 



N^ . THE SOCIAL AND CIVIC CENTER 

An active, H) ell-organized and efficient movement has devel- 
oped in man^ parts of the United States, since the beginning of 
the tTventieth century^, having for its object the more frequent bring- 
ing together of the people and the use for that purpose of public 
property nonr idle during a part of the time. This movement is 
both social and educational. It is capable of great and beneficial 
expansion. It has established itself in the state of Washington 
and the purpose of this leaflet is to extend the I^norvledge of its 
principles, its purpose, and its method. 

Onl}) a brief general summary has been attempted. The 
bibliograph}) will assist those who wish to k^ow the subject better 
and other leaflets will be issued in the future by this Bureau. 

The Civic Center Idea* 
The primary essential of successful democracy is the mu- 
tual knowledge by men of themselves and of each other. For 
this, frequent meetings upon a common ground must be had. 
In the early days of the nation, the town house, the parish 
church, the school house, and in the South the county court, 
provided meeting places in which the people came together, 
drawn by common interest and to a certain extent upon a 
plane of equality. Under the older social and industrial order 
society was simpler, its lines less sharply drawn, our people 
were more homogeneous, and their actions were guided to a 
greater extent than in our complex modern life by generally 
accepted principles. All these conditions are changed. So- 
cially, industrially and politically, lines of cleavage have ap- 
peared and widened. All the nations of the earth have come 
together in the American melting pot, of which some one has 



•The term "civic center," as used in these pages, refers to a 
public place where citizens gather for consideration of public mat- 
ters or for any common purpose of their civic life. It has no ref- 
erence to that other modern use of the term, in a physical or archi- 
tectural sense, which has reference to the grouping of public 
buildings. 



well said, that it is becoming more of a separator than a melt- 
ing pot. The old opportunities for common gathering and dis- 
cussion have been largely lost and our people are being divided 
more and more sharply into factions, clans, and social classes. 
At the same time, the democratic ideal has been strengthened 
and the movement of political democracy goes on with increas- 
ing momentum. This cannot continue without disaster. We 
can not build up class distinctions and a wider democracy to- 
gether. If this development is to be constructive and not de- 
structive, the old ideal of common assembly must be revived 
and its opportunities widened. This and a broader and more 
thorough education are the two anchors to which we must 
hold fast, and it is for this reason that the organization of 
the social and civic center becomes a natural associate of the 
university extension movement. 

This is the fundamental idea behind the movement for 
civic and social centers. The public buildings and grounds of 
a community are common property within which distinctions 
of creed, political parties, or social caste have no recognition. 
Here the people can meet on common ground. These plants are 
not used ordinarily during a sufficient time to yield the public 
an adequate return on the investment. Here then, provided 
there is a proper use to which they can be put, is an economic 
waste. The fuller utilization of outdoor public property for 
beauty and for recreation has been given much attention of 
late. This leaflet deals especially with the subject of the wider 
use of public buildings and particularly of the school plant. 

City and Town Halls 

The council chamber in the city hall of Rochester, New 
York, has been used for some years on Sundays afternoons as a 
forum for the free discussion of public questions. The com- 
mon council chamber of the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has 
recently been used, during the time when it was not needed for 
meetings of the city council, as the headquarters of an institu- 
tute of municipal and social service. In St. Paul, Minnesota, 
the use of the city hall has been given to citizens as a meeting 
place for the promotion of public welfare. This use of the 
city hall for a kind of voluntary and unofficial town meeting is 
a natural and normal one. 



Armories and Convention Halls 

Such public buildings as convention halls and armories can 
be utilized much more than they are now for festivals, athletic 
contests, physical training and many social and civic activities. 
Beginnings have been made in this direction in many cities. 

Public School Buildings 

It is, however, the public school building that is the nat- 
ural social and civic center. It stands for that great funda- 
mental interest of a democratic people — popular education — 
and we are beginning to learn that education continues or 
should continue through life, and that the adult deserves con- 
sideration as well as the child, though in a somewhat different 
way. Furthermore, there is a school in every neighborhood 
district. It has been determined that a public library can only 
serve adequately a population within a mile radius. The same 
need of convenient access applies with even greater force in 
the case of the social centre. The district must not be too large 
for true neighborhood feeling nor for organization about the 
common interests of home and everyday life. The school house 
alone of our public buildings meets these requirements. 

The school buildings are out of use at just the hours when 
the adults of the neighborhood could and would use them. Such 
use would be productive of a more friendly and intelligent in- 
terest in the schools on the part of the people and this would 
react to the benefit of the school system. A great public serv- 
ice would be accomplished at a cost of light, heat and janitor 
service. 

The school house in its present form is not generally adapt- 
ed to this wider public use. It is seated with seats impossible 
for adults and the plan and setting are not attractive nor 
convenient for other purposes than those of the school. The 
best modern school houses are much improved in these re- 
spects, however, and there is no reason why we cannot evolve a 
school house plan adapted to use as a social and civic center, 
thereby increasing the interest and attractiveness of the build- 
ing for all of its uses. In Texas the promotion of the socialized 
school building is being systematically encouraged through the 
extension department of the University of Texas, backed by the 



interest of citizens and school authorities. In the plan for a 
fully developed social centre school house, an assembly hall, 
reading room, library, gymnasium and recreation hall will be 
included. Meanwhile, the school district should not wait for 
millennial improvements, but should go as far as possible with 
the instruments at hand. 

It is not intended to send adult people to school. The 
idea is more broadly civic, educational, and social than that. 
It is to furnish a meeting place for social intercourse and for 
the open discussion of public questions in which all may stand 
upon an equality; a place in which the neighborhood may be 
socially organized on a democratic basis and not as a clique, 
class or faction. 

This is not an untried scheme of idealists. It has been in 
operation and worked well in many places in both city and 
country. A practical objection to the plan is frequently met 
in the inability of school authorities under the law to permit 
other use of school property than for ordinary school purposes. 
To meet this objection in Wisconsin a law was passed in 1911, 
two sections of which are as follows: 

SECTION 2. Wherever citizens of any community are or- 
ganized into a non-partisan, non-sectarian, non-exclusive as- 
sociation for the presentation and discussion of public ques- 
tions, the school board or other body having charge of the 
school house or other public properties which are capable of 
being used as meeting places for such organizations, when not 
being used for their prime purpose, shall provide, free of 
charge, light, heat, and janitor service, where necessary, and 
shall make such other provisions as may be necessary for the 
free and convenient use of such buildings or grounds, by such 
organization for weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly gatherings at 
such times as the citizens' organization shall request or desig- 
nate. 

SECTION 3. The school board or other boards having 
charge of the school houses or other public properties, may 
provide for the free and gratuitous use of the school houses or 
other public properties under their charge for such other civic, 
social, and recreational activities as in their opinion do not 
interfere with the prime use of the buildings or properties. 

The Neighborhood Civic Club 
The first of these sections suggests one of the specific forms 
of oranization which may be developed in a social center with 



Its headquarters in the district school house. This is the neigh- 
borhood civic club — an organization "non-partisan, non-sectari- 
an, non-exclusive, for the presentation and discussion of public 
viutstions. " This form of organization had its earliest and most 
perfect development in the city of Rochester, New York, and 
of it Prof. George M. Forbes, president of the board of educa- 
tion cf that city, has written: "You who have not witnessed it 
can not understand how party spirit, class spirit, and even 
race spirit fade out in the intense civic and community atmos- 
phere of these neighborhood civic clubs. It is pure democracy 
getting an opportunity to inform itself, working itself free 
from prejudice and narrowness, by absolutely free and unre- 
stricted discussion of any question, and eager to apply its new 
found spirit of brotherhood to the development and extension 
of community enterprises. Political liberty alone, even when 
it finds expression in universal suffrage, cannot solve the prob- 
lem of democracy. The only salvation of democracy is in the 
development of the community spirit. This spirit is latent in 
everv man. It only needs its appropriate stimulus to arouse it, 
the appropriate soil and atmosphere in which it may grow. Our 
democracy has yet to develop institutions which are generally 
communal in the sense that they appeal to and develop the ob- 
jective, the communal interest — that is, reveal the joy and sat- 
isfaction that come from cooperative effort for the common 
good; in short, institutions which break down the spirit and 
the result of exclusiveness and bring forth the recognition of 
man as man. Now the neighborhood civic club seems to be 
exactly the appropriate stimulus and soil to develop this civic 
spirit." 

It was said of the neighborhood civic clubs of Rochester, 
after three years of operation that they had developed in every 
part of the city, that there was not a considerable group in any 
party, church, or trade that had not some representation in al- 
most every neighborhood civic club; that there was no danger of 
abuse of public buildings by the citizens gathering in the school 
buildings, but that in many cases through these meetings there 
had been aroused an interest in improving and beautifying the 
buildings. It was further declared, as a result of this experi- 
ence, that "entire freedom of discussion is not only safe, but 
is conducive to self restraint, sincerity, and friendliness; that 



citizens meeting in the school buildings may be counted on to 
show a spirit of fairness and to listen impartially to both sides 
of every public question; that public servants and those who 
are capable of presenting public questions, especially those who 
are interested in great causes which make for the common wel- 
fare, welcome the opportunity which civic clubs offer them 
to talk to and confer with their fellows; and that neighborhood 
civic club attendance and participation not only develop breadth 
of sympathy and understanding, but tend to find expression for 
awakened civic spirit in well considered action for the common 
welfare." 

In a democratic society and under a republican form of 
government, the immense advantage of such organization of 
the citizenship as this hardly needs to be argued. It is a self- 
evident fact. 

Other Possibilities of the Center 

While the civic club is perhaps the most important and sig- 
nificant of the organizations that can be developed for the use 
of the school house as a social centre, there is a group of or- 
ganizations of kindred spirit which can be formed for the more 
perfect development of the community and the more complete 
utilization of public property. Among these may be mentioned 
boys' and girls' clubs, fathers' and mothers' clubs, study classes 
and lecture courses. The stereopticon and the motion picture 
in its best form may be brought in to serve the purposes of 
entertainment and of instruction. In fact, when fully organ- 
ized, there should be realized in each school district the full 
meaning of the compound term, "civic and social center." 

When local conditions call for it, the school house may 
be made the local recreation centre, branch public library, and 
bureau of information upon municipal and legislative questions, 
public health, etc. The definite program of action will vary 
with varying local needs, but the underlying principles of in- 
creased public utility and broadened educational value remain 
the same. 

The cost of all this, so far as the utilization of existing 
plants is concerned, need be only nominal, and when the great 
advantages to the community are taken into account, it may 
well be left out of consideration. If the building is provided 

8 



by the community, and there is no valid argument against such 
use of the public buildings under proper regulation and super- 
vision, the people of the neighborhood can easily provide for 
the maintenance of such organizations, entertainments or lec- 
tures as they find desirable and beneficial. 

In our larger cities, it would be well if a supervisor of 
social centers were employed by the municipality — a man of 
large human sympathy and wide experience and knowledge, 
who would devote himself exclusively to the direction and 
guidance of these organizations and of the various kinds of 
work which might be developed in the different school houses 
in the city. The maintenance of such an office is as legitimate 
a function of the school board as that of superintendent or 
school principal, and should be permitted by law in every com- 
munity that desires it. No public official would do a greater 
or more economically valuable public service than such a su- 
pervisor. A recent leaflet of the department of child hygiene 
of the Russell Sage Foundation makes this statement: "By 
adding a few specially trained leaders in recreation and social 
affairs to any educational corps, every school house in the land 
can be turned into a center of neighborhood life without 
harm to the school property or materially increasing the burden 
upon the taxpayers." 

References 

The subjoined bibliography is not complete, but contains 
a varied list of references which will serve the purpose of most 
persons interested in investigating the subject. 

AuualH American Academy — Educational Value of Public Recrea- 
tion Facilities — Vol. 35, pp. 350-356, Mar., 1910. 

Baker, R. S. — Do It for Rochester — The American Magazine, Vol. 
70, pp. 683-96, 1910. 

Baker, ]V. D. — Why recreation centers should be supported bv Pub- 
lic Taxation. Playground, 6:183-86, Sept., 1912. 

Baxter, S. — Widening the Use of the Public Schoolhouse — World's 
Work. Vol. 5, pp. 3247-8. 

Berr?-, G. — Open Schoolhouse. Bookman, 34:517-24, Jan., 1912. 

Bobhitt, J. F. — City School as a Community Art and Musical Center. 
Elementary School Teacher, 12:119-26, Nov., 1911. 

Bro^vn, K. E., U. S. Com. of Ed. — Some Uses of the Public Schools 
— Proceedings, Rochester Convention Playground Association 
of America, 1910. 



Butterfleld, K. L. — Rural School and the Community — Rural Prog- 
ress, 1908, pp. 121-125. 

Charities — Social Center Work in Milwaukee — Vol. 21, pp. 441-2, 
Dec. 19, 1908. 

Common Ground, Tlie — The Civic Club, Vol. 1, pp. 4, April, 1910. 

Social Center. Vol. 1, pp. 4-6, April, 1910. 

Social Centers in Rural Communities. Vol. 1, p. 17„ April 
1910. 

Social Center Movement in Other Cities. Vol. 1, pp. 39-51, 
May, 1910. 

The Playground and the Social Center. Vol. 1, pp. 57-9, 
June, 1910. 

The Social Center Movement Throughout America. Vol. 1, 
83-8, June, 1910. 

Curtis, H. S. — Need of a comprehensive playground plan. Amer- 
ican City, 5:338-40, Dec, 1911. 

Curtis, H. S. — The Neighborhood Center. American City, 6:14-17, 
133-7, July, Aug., 1912. 

Dutton and Suedden — (in their Administration of Public Educa- 
tion in the United States) — The Widening Sphere of Public 
Education, pp. 559-581; The School and Society, pp. 582-595. 

Evans, A. G. — Social Center Movement in Oklahoma. Survey, 
28:297, May 18, 1912. 

Forbes, G. M. — Buttressing the Foundations of Democracy. The 
School as a Social Center. Survey, 27:1231-35, Nov. 18, 1911. 

Forbes, G. M. — The Relation of Playgrounds to Social Centers — 
Playground Extension Leaflet, No. 59, Playground Association 
of America, 1 Madison Ave., New York City. 

Ford, G. B. — Madison Conference on Social Centers. Survey, 
27:1227-31, Nov. 18, 1911. 

Forsyth, Anne — Using the Schoolhouse out of School Hours — The 
World To-Day — Vol. 22, pp. 38-43, Jan., 1911. 

Gale, Z. — Adventure of Being Human. Outlook. 100:171-72, Jan. 
27, 1912. 

Hall, G. S. — Some Social Aspects of Education — Educational Re- 
view— Vol. 9, p. 517-19, June, 1909. 

King, Irving — Social Aspects of E3ducation. N. Y., Macm., 1912. 
Contains much material on schools as social centers. See par- 
ticularly pp. 65-97. Bibliography, pp. 96-97. 

League of Civic Clubs — Rochester, N. Y. — Some Opinions of the 
Rochester Social Centers and Civic Clubs. 

Leonard, O. — Branch Libraries as Social Centers. Survey, 25:1038-9, 
Mar. 18, 1911. 

Martin, J. — Social Work of New York Schools. Survey, 28:295-96, 
May 18, 1912. 

Martindale, W. C. — The School as a Social Center and its Relation 
to Evening Recreation Centers and Other Activities. Play- 
ground, 6:193-202, Sept., 1912. 

Mowry, D. — Social and Recreational Activity in Milwaukee. Amer- 
ican City, 6:748-50, May, 1912. 

Neighborhood Spirit and Training for Citixenship. Outlook, 
99:700-01, Nov. 25. 1911. 

10 



Pearse, Carroll G. — Is a city justified in spending hundreds of dol- 
lars for new building's to be used as recreation centers when 
school buildings may be remodeled and used for this purpose. 
Playground, 6-187-93, Sept., '12. 

Aobblns, J. E. — First year at the College Settlement. Survey, 
37:1800-02, Feb. 24, 1912. 

Rusnell Sasre Foandatlon, Departmeut of Child Hygrtene. — Publica- 
tions on the Wider Use of the School Plant. 

Vacation Schools. Clarence A. Perry. The summer use of 
the school house for teaching manual and domestic training. 
Brief bibliography. 32 pp. Illustrated. 

School Gardens. Mrs. A. L. Livermore. The history, educa- 
tional value, and practical operation of school gardens. Gives 
expense of equipment and brief bibliography. 31 pp. Illus. 

The Community-Used School. Clarence A. Perry. Use of the 
schoolhouse to promote public health, civic efficiency, and so- 
cial solidarity in the community. 9 pp. 

Evening Recreation Centres. Clarence A. Perry. A descrip- 
tion of various recreation centers in this country and a brief 
survey of the movement in England. Brief bibliography. 
32 pp. 

Sources of Speakers and Topics for Public Lectures in School 
Buildings. Clarence A. Perry. A directory of organizations 
which use the lecture platform to promote social amelioration. 
Also a list of topics suitable for discussion in public meetings 
and suggestions of local sources of speakers. 36 pp. 

Social Center Features in New Elementary School Architec- 
ture. Clarence A. Perry. An illustrated pamphlet showing the 
plans of the more advanced types of school buildings now be- 
ing erected in the United States, with a description of those 
special features which will enable them to render extra- 
ordinary services to their communities. 48 pp. Price 25 cents. 

SacceiiMful Kxperlmeut. — Survey, 27:1963-64, Mar. 23, 1912. 

Swift, E. J. — Community demands upon the public school. 

National Conference of Charities and Correction, 1910:169- 
77. 

Ward, E. J. — Rochester Social Centers and Civic Clubs: Story of 
the First Two Years — published by League of Civic Clubs, 
Rochester, N. Y., 40c. 

Rochester Social Centers. — Proceedings of Third Annual 
Congress of the Playground Association of America, Vol. 3, 
pp. 387-396, 1908. 

Playground and Social Center Work In Rochester, N. Y. 
Playground Mag., Vol. 4, pp. 108-118, June, 1910. 

Number 9 Social Center, 1909-1910, Rochester, 1909. 

Number 14 Social Center, 1909-1910, Rochester, 1909. 

^^'^ilson, \V'. — Need of citizenship organisation. American City, 
5:265-68, Nov., 1911. 

liVisconaln, University of, Extension Division. — Bulletins of the Bu- 
reau of Civic and Social Center Development. Price 5 cents 
each. There are sixteen of these at present, all of great service 
in becoming acquainted with the spirit and results of this 
movement. Price, 5c each. Madison, Wis. 

Zueblin, Charles. — Public Schools — American Municipal Progress, 
1902, pp. 159-165:358. 

Zueblin, Charles. — Training of the Citizen — Decade of Civic Devel- 
opment, 1905, pp. 25-30. 

11 



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